Plans to build Chick-fil-A in Pasadena delayed after council vote

Plans to build a Chick-fil-A restaurant across from Pasadena City College were put on hold Monday after a divided council approved a request by Councilman Terry Tornek to revisit the restaurant chain´s request for building permits. Wednesday, April 8, 2014 (Walt Mancini / Staff Photographer)

PASADENA >> Plans to build a Chick-fil-A restaurant across from Pasadena City College were put on hold this week after a divided council approved a request by Councilman Terry Tornek to revisit the restaurant chain’s request for building permits.

The project, which calls for an expansion of the existing drive-thru as well as removal of two protected trees, among other changes at the former Burger King site, was approved by a hearing officer in December and granted a conditional use permit by the Board of Zoning Appeals by a 3-2 vote in March.

However, Tornek requested the project be revisited because the expanded drive-thru is a “nonconforming use,” meaning it violates the East Colorado Boulevard Specific Plan, a document he says the city should not so easily discard. He criticized city staff for not adequately explaining or even referencing the specific plan’s restrictions to the council and to Chick-fil-A during the application process.

“If the East Colorado Specific Plan isn’t even mentioned, why are we spending all this time and treasure going through this planning process?” Tornek said. “The East Colorado Specific Plan is very precise in terms of what it allows and doesn’t allow and what its aspirations are, and this corner across from PCC is a big parcel, a corner parcel, highly visible, and the development of that parcel is of critical significance to that whole part of Colorado Boulevard.”

Tornek added that in doing his own research he discovered only seven instances in the last nine years in which the city approved an expansion of a nonconforming use. This is the second time the matter has been referred for additional review by the council.

McAustin said she thought Chick-fil-A followed the rules and the council shouldn’t change the rules mid-stream.

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“This has been heard and reheard,” McAustin said at the council meeting. “If expansion of a nonconforming use was not permitted, they wouldn’t have allowed this means to expand a nonconforming use. The (Colorado Specific) Plan built something in to allow for a circumstances just like this. ... I don’t necessarily see this as an intensification of the use.”

The Atlanta-based company also objected to the additional review, saying that the council would only further delay a project Chick-fil-A says would crate 60 permanent jobs for local residents and 300 temporary construction jobs. In a letter to the council, Chick-fil-A Development Supervisor Jennifer Daw said that the project has been in the approval process for nine months.

Chick-fil-A has tried to build its restaurant in Pasadena before, but was not approved. Daw said this time around the company has already spent more than $100,000 in city costs and the additional review from the council will delay the project, which was originally supposed to open this year.

“It is somewhat surprising the amount of scrutiny that has been brought to bear upon our modest proposal to remodel and expand the existing building,” Daw said. “Can there really be any additional information that has not already been considered several times and approved repeatedly?”